On Tuesdays I will be showing the development of one view, but it seems silly not to share some of the other longer views that are giving particular pleasure.
As my regular readers will know; my idea of a garden isn’t really about individual plants (although you might be forgiven for thinking that all my garden has is tulips!) but about how the plants form pleasing combinations, pictures if you like. So once a week, I can’t promise which day it will be I’ll be showing you what is making me smile as i walk around the garden.
Lots of the bursts of colour are given my tulips this week but the overall effect is created by all the plants you see.
White tulips ‘Design Impression’ leading the eye through the Upper drive border
Strong crimson from T. Double Negrita lead through to brighter pink tulips in the Large Island
Different pops of colour weave through the large Island leading the eye through spaces between the shrubs to views of other beds
As here T. Exotic Emperor in the foreground and T. Brown Sugar across the path
Lower Island with T. Mount Tacoma, the arch is framing the red foliage of the Photinia
This view is standing a little further back than the usual Tuesday View
Slightly telephoto it looks like this
Last years Double Dazzle tulips with Anemone coronaria ‘Sylphide’
Viburnum burkwoodii fills the view through the left side arch when I look out of the window
Wisteria growing up the columns with the extra reflected heat is colouring up now
This group of flowers really hugging the brick columns is actually fully out
All the images were taken today 23rd March at about 3 pm. It has been cloudy all day but high cloud giving good light emphasise the colours.
What view is giving you the most pleasure this week. Are you more of a plants person or a ‘broader view’ person?
Creating my own garden of the Hesperides 
lovely :))
Thank you
Beautiful views no matter which way one looks! Do your hybdrid tulips reliably return every year or peter out? When I did plant them (before the rodents got so bad after our cats became indoor kitties), they rarely returned. Species, miniatures and parrots did better for me.
I have to admit I am a plant gardener – although I admire form and structure, I find it doesn’t last long before its dissolved into something different. Thus, cottage garden style seems to be my thing.
Oh but cottage garden style is very much about an overall look, rather than individual plants. Yes some of my tulips have been returning for 10 years. They like dry hot summers so they are quite happy in my garden. If winter is very mild they tend to flower later.
Your climate is close to their origin, so I expect they’d do better for you. We can have damp, humid summers, so they probably rot away.
If I could grow tulips I’d be crazy about them too! Your long views are stunning Christina!
Thanks Jessica. I think you have some good long views too don’t you?
Plants I’d say, as my gardens don’t allow for a great variety of views. However, occasionally I clamber to the back of the raised beds and look at the house and garden from there. Because I do this so infrequently I enjoy the unusual vista all the more.
But are there views from the house windows? It’s more about a design concept than whether you have views outside the garden.
I love your broad views but find I am more of a plants person. Your tulips and other spring flowers are exceptional this year.
Most things seem to have liked the colder winter.
You have so much going on right now in your garden. Thanks for sharing.
There needs to be a lot going on now as later when it gets very hot it will all calm down.
Your garden is lovely from every angle, Christina! I’ve been focused on close-ups more than wide views of late but I am planning another series of wide shots for the first of April. My garden is definitely filling in with each passing year, making the long views more attractive (although there are some color clashes I’d like to address).
Mostly I like harmonious colpirà but in spring I’m quite happy for some clashes.
Why do white tulips look so much better in your garden than they do in mine?
Maybe the light or the dark green shrubs behind them?
Beautiful garden! I wanna create one! 🙂
I hope you do Malavika
What a pleasure to see the garden evolve and mature. It is looking magnificent this spring. My most advanced Wisteria is in budding strongly – but no open flowers yet. Amelia
You’re right, many more plants look mature this year. Only the wisteria right next to the south facing brick have opened but it won’t be much longer for the rest.
That all looks lovely, I especially like the white tulips.
In answer to your question I’m really not sure which I am. xx
Well it is allowed to be both!
Your garden is singing out spring now Christina and is warming me up on what is a frosty morning here. I’m definitely more of a greedy plants person and struggle with the ‘broader view’ and overall layout of the garden.
Glad the garden warmed you, as I said yesterday was very dull today the sun is shining.
Oh wow, your garden views are amazing and your wisteria is out! Your beloved tulips look stunning and really enhance your garden pictures.
How wish tulips did well here, seeing how the pools of them brighten your way along the paths in your lovely garden makes me sigh with envy.
I’ve come to the conclusion that it works best to be a combination of both: you need overall structure for a garden to have a sense of form and purpose. But skilled planting makes a real impact. I love the way you play the clean elegance and bright colours of the tulips with the foil of leaves in all sorts of colours from grey and green to silvery and red. It’s really lovely. As for our garden just at the moment my favourite is our wild raised bed, for its crazy colours and sheer exuberance. But once the red climbing rose is flowering on the pergola, complemented by white jasmine and honeysuckle, my eye and affections will rove!
Too cold and wet for wandering here, but your views give such joy. My uneaten tulips are still uncoloured and shivering! However, I am enjoying daffodils and new apple leaves from the kitchen window- a good planting decision!
Christina her garden looks beautiful and full of colorful flowers. Tulips of all shapes and colors encourage the garden and embellish it. Hyacinths and Anemones are not far behind. I like to have green shrubs all year round that give way but I prefer flowers. And more in my garden that I can not enjoy it because of the cold. Yesterday it was snowing in Madrid capital! And in my cottage were in the morning at -7 degrees Centigrate and snowing nonstop from night. Her garden Christina every day is more beautiful and the Wisteria blooming. It is a wonder! Greetings from Margarita.
I think the white tulips are really effective Christina, especially with silvery foliage, as much as I love any splashes of colour. That Euphorbia is also wonderful. Your views and the way the eye is drawn across borders are an inspiration, as I am definitely more of a plants person with my eyes down. Any good combinations in my garden are usually a matter of chance, but I like a bit of chaos! My Tuesday view will return soon as there are a few daffodils in it now at last. 🙂
I wanted to start the Tuesday view now so as not to miss the tulips.
Oh yes, it would ge greedy to keep all these views to yourself – thank you for sharing them with us. The tulips must surely have been worth all the effort as they are looking so good – and the wisteria…! 😊
The bees are already going crazy trying to break into the wisteria flowers
I didn’t realize your garden has jumped ahead to full-on tulip season. What a treat this morning as I go back to catch up! I can’t believe you have a wisteria bloom already.
The tulips look great. For as much as I like a mix of colors the larger plantings look so much nicer in the long view. You’ve really done a good job putting them together, I just don’t have enough vision to restrain myself from making a mess of it!
The tulips on the garden did start with a rush and now even those that have been in the ground for years are beginning to flower. That will be over much earlier this year but they are wonderful while they last.
I always enjoy your long views! Your tulips are wonderful. I have mentioned before that tulips repeat poorly in my climate and are generally treated as annuals (expensive ones!). I don’t normally plant them, but I was recently given 75 tulip bulbs. I just planted them a week ago, wondering if they would even come up, since these usually are planted in the fall and tulips have already come and gone in my area. Today I noticed the newly planted tulips are already coming up! Now I wonder if they will actually bloom.
Your tulips should bloom if they have been chilled either before purchase or by you for 10 -12 weeks at below 10°C, do let me know if they do flower as you know I’m very interested in how tulips grow, I planted my last batch in a pot in the greenhouse last week and the shoots are already through. I expect them to flower very quickly.
Your early Spring garden looks beautiful and I loved your tulips!
That’s what I call skilled planting. It looks amazingly full of both colour and texture.
Wow this looks so beautiful and so peaceful! I admire the hard work and skill of planting that has gone into this.